This article from the University of Minnesota might be of interest to some here.
http://www.cfans.umn.edu/Solut...ler_Bottle/index.htm

omg where are we heading?

Very depressing. Luckily I do not use any of that stuff around my property but I'll bet my neighbors do.

I keep planting as many flowers as possible to keep my bees "home" on my proeprty.

Disturbing stuff. All the more reason to keep enticing those pollinators to my garden!

Thanks for posting this. Yes, it is very disturbing.

quote:

Originally posted by brownrexx:
Very depressing. Luckily I do not use any of that stuff around my property but I'll bet my neighbors do.

I keep planting as many flowers as possible to keep my bees "home" on my proeprty.

Same here. I don't use any pesticides here, but my neighbor has a guy clean her yard every once in a while, and he sprays a stuff called "Image."

I have been planting roses in the front, and citrus in the back to hopefully give the bees a "safe yard" to retreat to. But as I said before. I really REALLY don't like bees. I'm not afraid, but when I was little, I went a whole summer getting stung every day it seemed. I keep my distance, but that doesn't mean I want them dead though

Since the pesticide mentioned has been banned in France and Germany for a few years I wonder if they've had a rebound in their bee populations.

I suspect its a little more complicated.

Think about this. What is the purpose of an insecticide?
The neonicotinoids are only one part of the total problem. Spinosad, supposedly a "safe organic" insecticide is also part of the problem as are the pyrethrins and all of the others. If a product is supposed to kill insects, it can also kill the beneficial insects not just those listed on the label.
So how do we keep our plants from being eaten by these bugs? Start with your soil. Make that into a good healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants that will be better able to ward off insect pests. Plant an insectiary, a place for the beneficial to subsist when the population of the food source (bad insects) is too low. if necessary, judiciously use the least toxic insecticde for the problem you have, ie. do not spray malathion to control Aphids when water will do quite well.
Always use the least toxic method of control for the problem you have.

I know it is worrisome. I am a bee keeper so do not use insecticides on my own lot. Can't do much about the rest of the world. Spraying corn when dropping pollen, or fruit trees when in bloom or lawns when clover or dandelions are blooming hold serious consequences for the bees. Here the farmers grow lots of alfalfa, and sometimes they will spray for weevil just before cutting first crop. This is disastrous if there is any bloom.

Honey bees easily forage for a mile radius. They will go further if need be to find what they need. A lot of different people may own lots in that area. No telling what they may be putting on their lots.

I am fortunate here in that I am right on the edge of the city and lots of farm acreage on two sides of my apiary. The farmers do not grow fruit nor corn. The alfalfa is the only big worry. It is also the main honey producer.

Still it has become increasingly difficult to stay in bees over the years I have kept bees. I suppose lots of factors are involved.

This year winter is going to take a toll as we have had an unusually long cold spell here. When the bees have no chance to fly for over a month it is really hard on them. They won't fly until the temperature reaches 50 degs F.

We really need bees to pollinate our crops. All of the melons, squash and cukes need an insect pollinator. Fruit trees need bee pollinators. The worlds food source will be in a lot of hurt is we lose our bees.

I have heard that CA would not even have an almond crop if not for the bees that are trucked there from other states.

Some of you may not know that some beekeepers "rent out" their bees for pollination of commercial crops. A big beekeeper in our area packs up his hives of bees onto a big truck and sends them to Florida for the winter. The florida farmers get their crops pollinated and the PA beekeeper gets the honey and does not need to feed his bees over the winter. I see that he sells Orange blossum honey so I guess he sends them to orange orchards.

It's interesting that beekeepers do this but isn't it sad that farmers don't even have enough native bees to pollinate their crops?

Brownrexx, I think they need to rent hives because they grow monoculture style- their crop is all the same and blooms all at once, so there is a superabundance of nectar and then nothing. Bees need a sequence of flowers, with something new always coming into bloom. The bee trucks go from area to area as different crops bloom, rather than relying on multiple crops in a small area.

Yes, the monoculture farming definitely requires more bees but I recently read that the native bee population in CA declined 39% since 2003 due to varoa mites and colony collapse disorder so they need to rely more on "rented bees" than ever before. Wild bees are on the decline too.

Sad.

From what I understand, the "native" honeybees are actually escaped European bees that were brought over hundreds of years ago and naturalized and spread across the US.

California agriculture sprays more poisons around than does most of the rest of the USA so why on earth would a bee keeper even want to take his bees there? Even hauling bees around apparently adds to the stress they live under and may be a contributing factor to "sudden colony collapse".